September 10, 2005

Are They Still Called "Improvements" if They Bring Your Property Value Down?

My next-door neighbor is one of the biggest hillbillies ever. She doesn't have a single bona fide blade of grass on her entire 2-acre lot; it's all clover, dandelions and crabgrass. She has a trampoline, a big wooden swingset, a statue of the Virgin Mary in the front yard, and this poor dog that's tied up out back year 'round.

In the past month, she's made two "improvements" to her property that have dropped the value of my house by about $15,000. First, she's added a pool. Of the above-ground variety. It's lovely, especially where it's all dug up over by the filter. Then, today, she painted her formerly-white house this color. Except brighter by an order of magnitude. I saw it this afternoon and nearly threw up in my mouth.